Christmas Bazaar

A massive thank you to everyone who popped by to say "hello" at the Lethbridge Christmas Bazaar.  

I had a fabulous time meeting customers old and new and have been busy fulfilling orders taken on the day.

Clockwise from top left: Flowers on snap hairclips, pom pom flowers on twigs from the garden and pom pom garlands, the right hand side of may stall, my "cheery handmade, homespun accessories" sign, the left hand side of my stall, the middle section of my stall.

Clockwise from top left: Fabric flower hair bobbles, hearts and pom poms on sticks, "Noel" and "Love" bunting, Granny Angels (more about these coming soon), large bow hair bobbles.

Clockwise from top left: Denim corsages, felt message envelopes, hanging felt robins, felt teddy or dolly angel wings, felt message envelopes and teddy or dolly angel wings, denim corsages.

Denim Corsage Brooches

Now jeans are quite a staple in our house....Mr A wears smart jeans pretty much every day at work, Miss M is as happy as a pig in mud in her jeans, Miss E likes a pair of skinnies and a girlie top and I like a denim skirt and boots combo.  So all in all, we create quite a lot of worn out or grown out of denim which I was sure could be put to good use and so created these Denim Corsage Brooches.

Each one is different even if I create the same design several times due to the colour and thickness of the denim.  These ones below were born from a friend's cast off pair of Levis.

The petals of the two below are from a pair of my old Monsoon jeans and the centres are from a pair of Miss M's Gap ones.

I love how each one has a history and that it's having a second moment of glory in another form.

The circular corsages with large buttons (below) layer several types of denim together.  As much of the denim I have has a element of stretch, I have pulled the outer edges of these circular flowers to help give the flower a bit more texture and dimension.  I'm a bit fan of letting the denim fray as well so I'm purposely quite brutal with how I handle the fabric to help encourage the fraying.

 The five petal flowers are mounted on felt to give them a bit more body and strength and I have played about with teal, navy and red felt....ah now which one is my favourite?

Pom Pom Garlands

No snow here yet and it's not baring well for a white Christmas so these pom pom snowballs may be the closest we get to the real thing for the time being.

I find pom poms so addictive to make and so simple....the perfect TV accompaniment as I can watch and wind.

I have both the white and red versions up in my house at the moment.  The white one hanging with some delicately cut paper snowflakes and the red ones on my dining room mantle piece with twigs with red berries and pine cones.

I love this bluey grey garland so much and might well put this one up properly in the New Year once the Christmas decorations have come down.

Toowit Toowoo!

I'm taking a risk here, as it's my Mum's Birthday and this is the cake I've made for her...only thing is that I'm not seeing her until tomorrow evening....aaargh!  Don't look Mum!!

As you can see in this photo, the cake is all made from individual cup cakes.  I arranged them in the shape I wanted on the tray first and then iced each one individually before filling the gaps between the cakes with the icing.

I also put a little bit of icing on the bottom of each cake to help them to stay in place on my tray especially as they have to survive a car journey.  I don't want those little owls slipping and sliding about!

I hope you like it  Mum...Happy Birthday xx

Pom Pom Flowers

You might remember last month I'd shared this picture of a bag of pom poms I'd made in deliciously, soft,dusty, pastel colours with the idea that I'd make them into flowers...and now I have done just that.

I was so impatient that I took the photos as soon as I'd put the flowers in the vase rather than waiting till morning when I'd have lovely natural daylight,  so unfortunately there are some rather horrid shadows and the focus is a bit blurry!  Hopefully you can see through these misgivings to the gorgeous soft, fluffy pom poms. 

The twigs are from the trees in our garden so there's some lovely recycling in this creation as well.

Following on from the robins I felt I just had to hit the snow effects again...it's just too tempting!!

Candy Coloured Flower Clips

I remember as a child being told that red and pink simply don't go together...it's just not the done thing.  Well I guess one of the benefits of being a grown up is that you can bend the rules a little...or in this case, completely throw out the rule book and create a new one where red and pink can live in perfect vibrant harmony.

Each one of these clips will be ever so slightly different as not only did I stray off piste with the colour rule book...I did the same with my template.  I made a rough flower shape template but then let my scissors run a little loose in their own way.

Which one is your favourite?  I just can't decide but I do love the teal one with the light blue inner and the red flower with the pink inner.....and the pink flower with the red inner for that matter too...yep still can't decide!

Little Robins

So we're in November now and although I'm not ready to be all Christmassy yet, I have been busy creating these little winter robins to perch on your tree...tweet tweet!

As always I design and draw my templates by hand and then use them to cut out my pieces of felt and fabric.

A lovely pile of paired up little red tummies and brown flappy wings.

These birdie shapes are ready to have their little black brad eyes, lovely, plumb, red tummies and flappy wings sewn into place.

Then at the end I have a very satisfying pile of cut offs ready to go into my scraps box ready for when I need tiny bits of fabric and felt.

I just couldn't resist the Winter Wonderland section on PicMonkey any longer...I can see snowy overlays coming on everything from now on!! Brrrrrrr

More pom poms

Who doesn't love a pom pom?  Well we certainly do here.  I mentioned the other day that over the summer Miss M, Miss E and I had our very own back garden Pom Pom Workshop 

Well that was just the start of it.  Since then, I've been a busy bee with my natty Clover pom pom device cooking up these little beauties.

I don't want to say too much yet but I'm going to create flowers using these soft dusty shades ...

....and these red and white ones are going to make lovely Christmas Pom Pom Garlands.

You may have spotted some rogue blue ones who have snook into this bunch, well they are destined for a garland for my breakfast room at some point soon.

Gromit Unleashed

We spent a lovely day during the Summer with Uncle Paul and Auntie Beth following the Gromit Unleashed Trail in Bristol...we didn't manage to see all 80 of the Gromit sculptures but as you can see, we did manage a fair few.  

The scuptures were auctioned off earlier this week and raised an amazing £2.3million for the Wallace and Gromit Grand Appeal to support sick children and their families at Bristol Children's Hospital.  

More information can be found on their website here. 

Do you have a favourite?  I liked so many of them but I thought this Cath Kidston designed one would have looked amazing outside my front door!!

They're changing the guards at Buckingham Palace...

...Miss M and Miss E went down with Grandma and Grandad....we didn't see Christopher Robin or Alice but we did have a great time.

My favourite part without a doubt was seeing the Queen's Coronation gown close up.  The bead work and embroidery really was quite something else.  It must have been very heavy to wear and the dress itself was tiny.  There was also some fantastic behind the scenes video footage of setting up the formal photos with a very young Prince Charles and Princess Anne hiding and playing.

 

Miss M and Miss E loved the taxi ride to the station on the tip up seats.

At the station waiting for our train.

Picnic time before it was time for us to go into the palace.

If we'd have picnicked any closer we would have been sitting next to the Queen!!

Obviously it's no photography in the palace but everyone wants a souvenir snap on the palace steps leading into the palace garden.

Miss M and Miss E are clutching their Palace Garden Cafe cups.

The big white sheet on the lawn was protecting the grass as this is where the marques are erected for the garden parties. 

Buckingham Palace - the white marques is the Palace Garden Cafe.

It's very tiring visiting the Queen!

Back at the train station waiting for the train home.